The grey honeyeater (''Conopophila whitei'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the honeyeater family. It is an uncommon and little-known bird, an often overlooked

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

of remote areas in central Australia.

Taxonomy

Currently placed as a species of the genus ''

Conopophila ''Conopophila'' is a genus of bird in the family Meliphagidae. It contains the following species: The name is derived from the Greek word for gnat, ''conops'', thus a lover of gnats. References

Conopophila, Taxonomy articles creat ...

'' and classified within the honeyeater family

Meliphagidae The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New Gu ...

, ''Conopophila whitei'' was first described by

A. J. North Alfred John North (11 June 1855 – 6 May 1917) was an Australian ornithologist. North was born in Melbourne and was educated at Melbourne Grammar School. He was appointed to the Australian Museum, Sydney in 1886 and was given a permanent positi ...

in 1910 as ''Lacustroica whitei''. The population continued to be assigned to a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

genus ''Lacustroica'', or as most closely related to two other species, the rufous-banded ('' Conopophila rufogularis'') and rufous-throated ('' C. albogularis'') honeyeaters. The species was found by F. Lawson Whitlock in 1903 at

Lake Austin Lake Austin, formerly Lake McDonald, is a water reservoir on the Colorado River in Austin, Texas. The reservoir was formed in 1939 by the construction of Tom Miller Dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority. Lake Austin is one of the seven Hi ...

in Western Australia, but no formal description was made. The two specimens he shot and prepared were sent to the Western Australian Museum, about which he received no reply. At the beginning of his later expedition, in 1909, Whitlock killed and skinned a male of the species, recognised as the same he collected in 1903, and located the preparation of a nest by a breeding pair close to the town-site of Wiluna. Whitlock also noted the location of other nesting sites on his journeys around Wiluna, all of which he found had been removed when he returned to them. He continued to observe the progress of the nest near the main street, that had remained undisrupted, eventually removing the branch that held it for his collection. These specimens were supplied to North for the first accepted description, published the following year. The specific epithet ''whitei'' honours Alfred Henry Edsworth White, the son of ornithologist Henry L. White. The generic name ''Conopophila'' is derived from the Ancient Greek ''konops'' 'gnat' and ''philos'' '-loving'. The image accompanying North's description in ''

Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus '' Dromaius''. The emu ...

'' (1910) was captioned with the name 'Alfred Honey-eater'. The informal names for this species also include White's honeyeater and inconspicuous honeyeater. The

IOC World Bird List ''Birds of the World: Recommended English Names'' is a paperback book, written by Frank Gill and Minturn Wright on behalf of the International Ornithologists' Union. The book is an attempt to produce a standardized set of English names for all b ...

has proposed grey honeyeater as the common name for this species.

Description

A tiny honeyeater, grey and discreet, with a nondescript colouration that is only faintly marked. The length is . The plumage of the upper body is generally cold grey, the lower parts paler, becoming browner until a moult. Tail and flight feathers are a blackish brown, and a slightly darker marking extends across the eye to the bill. The tips of the tail feathers are white, aging to buffish. The bill is relatively short for a honeyeater, slightly down-curved and grey, becoming black toward the tip. There is a pale and indistinct ring of feathers, tinted buff, around the eye. The colour of the iris is brown, the legs are steel grey. Juveniles have a faintly yellowish cast to the thin eye-ring, that almost disappears as they mature, and on the pale grey feathers of the throat. The grey flight feathers of the immature birds have a yellow-green wash. The grey honeyeater is similar in appearance to the Western gerygone ('' Gerygone fusca''), yellow-rumped thornbill ('' Acanthiza chrysorrhoa'') and others of the genus '' Acanthiza'', all of which it often accompanies in mixed species flocks.Simpson, Ken, Day, N. and Trusler, P. (6th edn., 1999). ''Field Guide to the Birds of Australia''. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books Australia . Care should be taken to distinguish the grey honeyeater from the female redthroat ('' Pyrrholaemus brunneus'')

Voice

The most common call of the grey honeyeater has been described as a piercing, metallic, quick, double squeak "chirra-wik-chirra-wik", or "cre-seek" and somewhat resembling the call of the white-bellied cuckooshrike ('' Coracina papuensis''). It also makes a weak, grating, high-pitched tinkling or a plaintive series of notes given in quick succession, sounding like "troo-whee, troo-whee".

Distribution and habitat

The grey honeyeater is found in a range extending across the mid-west to the centre of the Australian continent, especially in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a g ...

and Murchison regions of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, and southern and central

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

. It is rare to uncommon and probably sedentary with some nomadic movement. The species is found in semi-arid mulga ('' Acacia aneura'') and similar acacia scrublands.Morcombe, Michael (2012) ''Field Guide to Australian Birds.'' Pascal Press, Glebe, NSW. Revised edition. The occurrence of mistletoe may be an important factor in determining its distribution. Some good locations for finding the grey honeyeater are the

Olive Pink Botanic Garden Olive Pink Botanic Garden is a botanic garden in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia, specialising in plants native to the arid central Australian region. History The 16 ha area that is now Olive Pink Botanic Garden was ga ...

, Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory, and Wanjarri Nature Reserve, south of Wiluna, and Tom Price, in Western Australia.

Behaviour

Breeding

The breeding season is August to November, which may extend through to May, if there is summer rain. The

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materi ...

is a small, frail, untidy cup of fine grass stems, lined with hair and plant down, bound with spider web, hanging from slender twigs in the outer foliage of a mulga shrub. A clutch of 1 or 2 eggs, each measuring , is laid. The eggs are swollen oval and slightly glossy white, spotted with reddish-brown. Incubation is probably by both sexes, as is the feeding of nestlings and fledglings.

Feeding

The grey honeyeater is primarily insectivorous, busily gleaning the surface of foliage for lerp and similar insects or hovering to capture flying insects.Higgins, P., L. Christidis, and H. Ford (2020). "Gray Honeyeater (Conopophila whitei), version 1.0." In ''Birds of the World'' (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.gryhon1.01 It also feeds on nectar by piercing the deep, tubular flowers of species such as ''Eremophila'', and on the nectar and berries of mistletoe.

Conservation status

The grey honeyeater is classified as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

. It is considered as

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

in Western Australia. Threats are uncontrolled fires from which mulga takes many years to recover, and also grazing by introduced animals that damage the habitat.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1039899 grey honeyeater Birds of Western Australia Birds of the Northern Territory Endemic birds of Australia grey honeyeater grey honeyeater Taxonomy articles created by Polbot